Eleanor Audley

            On Saturday morning I memorized the eighth verse of "Sans blague" (No Joke) by Boris Vian. 

            I memorized the first chorus and the second verse of "Je croise aux Hébrides" (I Cruise the Hebrides) by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            I posted my Saturday homework for English in the World: 

            Social media and online crowdsourcing will serve as major wellsprings of information for the three-year project of compiling The Oxford Dictionary of African American English (ODAAE). Harvard University's Hutchins Centre for African & African American Research and the Oxford University Press are working together on this ambitious enterprise. 

            The English language is continuously changing and the internet is a powerful catalyst of that metamorphosis. This is also true of all the vernaculars of African American English, and researchers will draw from social media sources, not only to find words but to chart their global impact over time. I would surmise that in addition to mainstream platforms they will find especially valuable data on culturally specific forums such as Black Twitter and the popular social media application MelaninPeople. 

            Of particular benefit for collecting words and word histories for this dictionary will be the researchers' digital method of crowd-sourcing. The website https://public.oed.com/oxford-dictionary-of-african-american-english/ will allow anyone to contribute text and sound samples, making this very much a community project. Such an inclusive method of data collection will benefit from a range of generations, from the memories of the elderly to the vibrant communities of tech-savvy youth. 

            One would hope that in gathering "African American English" the researchers will not fall into the trap of focusing on the US-centric misuse of the word "American" and will include the contributions to the English language from black people of the entire American diaspora, including Canada and the Caribbean. 

            The lexicon is expected to be published in 2025. 

            https://www.cbc.ca/radio/day6/oxford-dictionary-african-american-english-1.6548596 

    

            I weighed 84.7 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I've been in the morning in a week. 

            I went down to No Frills where the grapes were very cheap but not in great shape. After squeezing grapes in every bag I picked seven bags that contained relatively firm ones. I also bought a pack of five-year-old cheddar, three bags of skim milk, a jar of white corn and black bean salsa, a bag of barbecue kettle chips, a strawberry-rhubarb pie, a box of saltines, and two containers of skyr. Since it's Thanksgiving weekend I splurged on the decadent purchase of six little frozen quails for $21.50. 

            I chatted for a while with Benji and Shankar outside of our building. 

            I went to the liquor store and bought a six-pack of Creemore. 

            The panhandler outside the LLBO held out his hands and shook them, then said, "Spare change for the shakes?" 

            I chatted with Benji and Shankar again on the way back. 

            I weighed 85.1 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of lemonade. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 85.1 kilos at 17:22.

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:15. 

            I did some more research for my essay on Chiac and while doing so I translated the song "Moncton" by Marie-Jo Thério: 

Gisèle, I’m calling you for nothing 

because it’s boring tonight 

and there’s nothing happening

in Moncton 

This is so weird for a Saturday night 

in Moncton 

Gisèle, I’m calling you for nothing 

I hope phoning you is all right 

I guess I was only moping 

I want to tell you a story 

I tried coaxing Mike at least three times 

to come watch a movie and have a good time 

but he'd rather do nothing 

If only high school would finally finish 

we could have fun in the sun at Parlee Beach 

Gisèle, what are your summer plans? 

I bet you've already filled your list 

with a full-time job 

and a boyfriend to kiss

Gisèle, I feel really stuck here 

It looks like I'm able to move on 

So let autumn sit there 

because by then I'll be gone 

But right now I’m calling you for nothing 

because it’s boring tonight 

and there’s nothing happening 

in Moncton 

This is so weird for a Saturday night 

in Moncton 

And then I start to thinking 

about the years to come 

and I really don't know where I'll be fitting 

in my life 

and I watch myself when I've made the jump 

I'm so stuck in my thinking 

in Moncton 

            I made pizza on naan with Basilica sauce and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching episode eight of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            As this story begins Jethro gets a letter from his mother and reads it to the family. She begins by saying she hopes Jethro's getting good marks in the fifth grade. At this point, Jed says he forgot to put Jethro in school and so after the letter is read that's what he's going to do. Pearl continues that Jethro's sister Jethrine had a narrow escape from a city dude named Jazzbo Depew who tried to take advantage of her. He wears patent leather shoes with spats. Pearl says Jethrine met him when she went to check on Jed's old house. Granny says that she knows Pearl went to check on the oil man Mr. Brewster and that the more she has her eyes on a man the more feathers she puts in her hat. Then we see the live action of the letter as Pearl enters the cabin with about twenty feathers in her hat. Jazzbo comes in with flowers for Jethrine and a big bottle of "Eau d'amour" genuine perfume from Paris France. But the label looks generic and pasted on. 

            Jed drives Jethro to look for a school for him to attend and they stop at the Millecent Schyler Potts School. It's an exclusive private school serving students from kindergarten up to the sixth grade. When Miss Potts sees Jed and Jethro, dressed as they are and looking poor, coming to enroll a child in her school she thinks it's a prank being instigated by a competitor. When Jed tells her he has $25 million in Mr. Drysdale's bank she says that Drysdale happens to hold the mortgage on her school. So she calls him to call Jed's bluff. The result is that she falls all over herself to let what she thinks is a little boy named Jethro Bodine into her school. She still doesn't realize that Jethro is the full-grown young man sitting there with Jed. She gives Jed a uniform for Jethro to wear when he comes back the next day, but it's for a nine-year-old boy. Granny takes it out as best she can but it still looks ridiculously small on Jethro. The next morning Miss Potts comes to drive Jethro to school and is shocked that he's an adult. She asks him, "You are in the fifth grade?" "Yes ma'am, I just finished three years in the fourth!" Jed adds that he got through the first grade in only two years. Potts is about to say she refuses to allow this, but then Jed says Mr. Drysdale is coming down the driveway. Potts takes Jethro's hand and skips with him to the door, singing "This is the way we go to school!" 

            Miss Potts was played by Eleanor Audley, who made her Broadway debut at 20. She mostly worked in theatre until the beginning of the 1940s when she started getting roles on the radio. She played Leticia Cooper on "My Favourite Husband" from 1948 to 1951, Molly Byrd on "The Story of Dr. Kildare" from 1949 to 1951, and Elizabeth Smith on "Father Knows Best" from 1949 to 1954. Her first movie was "The Story of Molly X" in 1949. She was the model for and the voice of Lady Tremaine and Maleficent in Disney's animated features "Cinderella" and "Sleeping Beauty". On 60s television, she played Irma Lumpk on "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis", Peggy Billings on "The Dick Van Dyke Show", Aunt Martha on "Mr. Ed", Jenny Teasley on "Pistols and Petticoats", and Eunice Douglas on "Green Acres". 

            I searched for bedbugs and didn't find any for the second night in a row.